When it comes to SEO- in this example, SEO for "real estate"- are you fully taking advantage of real estate related synonyms and acronyms in your search engine optimization efforts?
There's a joke that SEO people tell:
An SEO expert walks into a bar / pub / tavern / public house / restaurant / dive / club.
That's it. That's the whole joke. Do you get it?
It's All About The Synonyms and Acronyms
If you search Google for "AZ SEO expert," you will find me on page one of Google, position #1. It's not a big deal. If you don't see me there, it's because you are logged into Google or there are other factors affecting your search. But that's where I'm at as of today, June 28, 2013.
Now take a look at the result below. I want to point out a couple of important factors:
1. The search was for "AZ SEO Expert" and the none of the three are in my URL (gurueffect.com). The word "expert" is not in my page title, description, or URL. Yet, here I am.
2. The word "consultant" is highlighted (emboldened) by Google- even though I didn't search for a consultant. But Google knows what I want, doesn't it? I searched for an expert, and it gave me a consultant. Same thing. I searched for "AZ", but I was given "Arizona" in bold. (Not as impressive, I know.)
I know that Google considers at least 3 words to mean the same thing: Expert, Consultant, and Guru.
Quick sidebar: Some people, who are usually in the same industry as me, hate the term "guru" and the fact that I use it. It comes across as arrogant and in the wake of late-night television, seems almost cheesy. "I am the SEO guru and for only $19.95 I promise to make you number one..." But I don't care what my peers think; I care what Google thinks. And Google considers a guru also an expert and a consultant, as anyone can see from my example.
My page title and description is absolutely stuffed with keywords, but because I use synonyms and variations of root words (i.e. "consultant, consulting")- I get to take full advantage of all this power without actually being too spammy. This is not black-hat or bad technique. Different people search for different words and you really need to understand that to get the most benefit. In this case, I mixed up "guru" and "consultant."
I hate keyword stuffing...but this isn't stuffing. This is making sure that your clients find you no matter what term they use.
Are you a REALTOR, a real estate agent, or a broker? Maybe all three?
But have you considered that you might also be a "RE Agent" a "RE Salesperson" or simply an REA?
If you look at my page title, it says Guru twice and Consultant once. But to Google- those words mean the same thing. If you consider the word "guru" as interchangeable with "consultant"-- the snippet above is absolutely stuffed, is it not? Try reading it aloud and replacing the word "guru" with "consultant."
That's what many of you do. You may put the term "Phoenix Realtor" on your page 17 times, instead of mixing it up a bit. All of these mean the same to Google:
- Phoenix Realtor
- Phoenix Real Estate Agent
- Phoenix RE Agent
- PHX RE broker
- PHX RE Salesperson
- ...and on and on and on.
Rethinking Your Pages and Page Titles
If you want to squeeze every drop of power from your website-- you can shorten keyword phrases and condense your titles with acronyms, synonyms and abbreviations. For example, let's say you have a page title that looked like this:
"Phoenix Realtor | Realtor in Phoenix Arizona | Phoenix Real Estate Agent and Real Estate Company"
First of all, that's way too long anyway. Google wouldn't display or index the whole title, so you are just throwing away valuable space. Try this:
"Phoenix Realtor | RE Agent, Phx, AZ | Phoenix Realty Service"
Now I would consider that title to be pretty stuffed-- but Google is going to index every word.
1. Realtor used twice: "RE Agent"
2. Phoenix used two different ways: "Phx"
3. Company not used at all: "Service" is a synonym for company. "Realty" says "real estate agency" or "real estate brokerage" in one single word. You only get so many characters to make an impression-- so if you can condense three words into one word- for goodness sakes, do it!
Learn your synonyms and acronyms. (<-- Useful links there.) It's been a while since I've written a blog post on ActiveRain, so for that, I apologize. If you need help with your real estate SEO efforts, feel free to contact me through this blog.
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